Chapter 446
Imprint One
Heavenly Envoys are phantom demons that exist in the Dream Realm, and they can directly enter dreams. Just as birds can fly and fish can swim.
Even ordinary phantom demons possess this ability, as long as they can reach the Material Realm by their own means.
Once they can enter a dream, they can easily destroy mortals from within it.
Curses, phantoms, implanted suggestions, altered memories, or even the direct destruction of souls.
Mortals are ultimately beings living in the Material Realm, and only during sleep do fragments of their thoughts project into the Dream Realm.
Except for professions like Dream Traveling Monks who possess the “Dream Walker” trait, mortals have no resistance in the Dream Realm, and even lack clear self-awareness.
This is also the essence of certain “revelations,” “precognitive dreams,” or “demonic possessions.”
—Of course, Dream Traveling Monks with clear consciousness still have no resistance.
If attacked by a phantom demon in the Dream Realm, they would only die with more clarity, and their clear consciousness would make them even more vulnerable—much like Extraordinary beings during an Ascension Ritual.
When Extraordinary beings enter dreams with clear intentions, their souls directly enter the Dream Realm.
And before the “Host” system was popularized, Ascenders in the Dream Realm first had to survive the phantom demons that hunted souls—but outside the areas of Ascension Rituals, Dream Traveling Monks lacked the “Host’s” protection.
Beings who have lucid dreams and wander into the Dream Realm unconsciously are easily exposed to its phantom demons.
It could be a good thing, leading to certain encounters, such as meeting knights, sages, or angels, and learning swordsmanship, spells, or divine arts in their dreams; or it could be encountering fey, the God of Death, or heroic spirits from the Shadow Realm, and being led into fairy realms, the underworld, or the Shadow Realm, leading to unpredictable events; or directly encountering a soul pearl and having their soul frozen, or being possessed by a demon.
It’s like playing a roguelike with one’s life.
Curse Masters pursuing the Path of Transcendence and Love also lack the ability to walk lucidly in the Dream Realm, but they can attack others from the Dream Realm through mediums. Writers of the Path of Beauty, on the other hand, have the ability to weave and alter dreams.
However, such dream intrusions are obviously limited.
They are ineffective against devout followers of Pillar Gods or those who have been directly blessed.
Protection from higher existences can safeguard mortal souls. It acts like a firewall, isolating these thought fragments from the main body and blocking the influences.
The blessings of Pillar Gods can protect against attacks from Heavenly Envoys and Apostles, and the protection of Heavenly Envoys and Apostles can protect against attacks from Curse Masters.
A meager blessing obtained through routine prayer can greatly increase the difficulty of cursing oneself—complete immunity is impossible, just as Eivass would be forcibly marked at this moment.
But at least this way, he wouldn’t have to worry about Bear Heavenly Envoy directly attacking him through the network cable.
However, Eivass was a little confused.
He wasn’t sure if he was protected by the Silver Crown Dragon, or by Candlemaster…
…Or Father Snake, the Twin Mirrors? Or even Ring Heavenly Envoy?
In any case, the protection was quite effective.
“Bear Heavenly Envoy has killing intent towards me,” Eivass said to a confused Lily, explaining, “It’s probably because of the matter with the Prince of Giants.
“Setting aside whether Bear Heavenly Envoy wants him to ascend as an Apostle… but the deity is clearly targeting me because of this. Or perhaps, even before that, when I was being watched by the Silver Crown Dragon, it had already set its sights on me.”
Or, it could be because of the “Divine Entity,” Eivass added in his heart.
“But even Bear Heavenly Envoy, who clearly has killing intent towards me, cannot directly enter my dream.”
Eivass chuckled, “It has found me, yet it cannot comprehend the shape of my dream. This actually exposes its weakness more.”
Even while being pursued by a Heavenly Envoy, Eivass remained unfazed.
Because Eivass knew that Bear Heavenly Envoy had only two paths to kill him.
Either destroy Eivass in the Material Realm, or devise various methods to leave more and more imprints on him, continuously strengthening its connection to Eivass’s main body—after accumulating seven imprints, Bear Heavenly Envoy could bypass the Pillar God’s protection and directly invade Eivass’s dream in the Dream Realm to attack and kill him.
If other Heavenly Envoys wanted to kill him, they would definitely choose the latter.
But given Bear Heavenly Envoy’s personality, it would 100% choose the former. At least the initial rounds would be head-on assaults.
Although it is a malicious god, it disdains schemes and conspiracies.
And the Material Realm… that is a domain regulated by the Pillar God of Equilibrium, “Hourglass.”
No matter how powerful a Heavenly Envoy or Apostle may be, upon entering the Material Realm, they must obediently be “balanced.”
All enemies in the Material Realm can be defeated.
Those who are invincible will be balanced down to a theoretically defeatable level after entering the Material Realm.
In other words, even if Bear Heavenly Envoy wanted to send Apostles to hunt Eivass, it would have to abide by Hourglass’s “fairness” rules and first defeat Eivass’s Night Demon in the Material Realm.
Keep in mind that a month ago, Eivass and Night Demon easily defeated Succubus as if Zhao Yun had charged through Changban Seven Times—Eivass even maintained a position ahead of Night Demon the entire time!
…It can only be said that Adou was resilient; he didn’t even cry.
There’s nothing that can be done about it; summoners are like that. Even after Eivass was promoted to Sin Scholar, he was still a “scholar,” suppressing those Beasts of Sin with the power of Heavenly Envoys and Pillar Gods.
Only when Eivass truly becomes the Beast Lord of the Beast of Sin, capable of merging with the Beasts of Sin at any time, will his survivability fundamentally leap forward… transforming from a summoner-class profession to a shapeshifting class.
—The Lord of Great Beasts, the Lord of Beasts of Sin, the Great Beast Lord… whatever it’s called. In essence, it is the sovereign of the Beasts of Sin.
That was a new profession developed by “Eivass” himself, named by the original Eivass Moriarty.
It involved transforming oneself into the seventh deadly sin—imprinting “Arrogance” onto one’s own body. To truly command the six Beasts of Sin with one’s own power and body.
…Much like how the Clow Cards were rewritten into Sakura Cards.
Before the Eivass of this world reaches that position, there can be no second “Beast Lord” in this world. Just as “Sin Scholar” was also a name Eivass coined.
To directly confront Ring Heavenly Envoy, to confront one’s own fate… and even to touch the position of Pillar God, one must at least reach that realm.
The Demon Scholar advances to the Sin Scholar at the Fourth Tier, and has a second promotion at the Seventh Tier.
The job change quest for the Lord of Great Beasts requires Eivass to gather Beasts of Sin of all six attributes, level them all to the Seventh Tier, and also prepare Heavenly Envoy Fragments of all six attributes, along with Holy Weapons or extraordinary materials of equivalent level to “crown” them.
Bear Heavenly Envoy is a Heavenly Envoy of Fire and Earth attributes. It can be used for Fire attributes as well as Earth attributes.
Eivass also recalled… within Bear Heavenly Envoy’s dense forest, there were many Flame Butterflies.
Based on the occult knowledge Eivass obtained from the school library, that dense forest should be the domain Bear Heavenly Envoy had demarcated in the Dream Realm, “The Everburning Valley.”
The Silver Crown Dragon was always watching and guarding the Everburning Valley, preventing Bear Heavenly Envoy from leaving to other areas of the Dream Realm.
Bear Heavenly Envoy ignites the souls of cowards, the lazy, and those who evade, transforming them into Flame Butterflies, causing them to burn and dedicate all their power. That power will become flames, burning the weak and healing the strong.
After the Silver Crown Dragon selects the souls belonging to it, it will be the turn of Bear Heavenly Envoy, ranked first in the Path of Authority, to choose.
It prioritizes the souls of cowards and the strong—the former will transform into fragile butterflies, burning themselves until they turn to ashes.
The latter will transform into beasts and hunters, endlessly fighting each other in the burning forest valley.
Hunters hunt beasts, and beasts devour hunters.
As long as a hunter or beast completes a kill, the hunter becomes the hunted, and the hunted becomes the hunter.
This cycle repeats, the dead are reborn repeatedly, but become weaker and weaker.
And once their courage is completely burned out, they lose their beast form and become mindless Flame Butterflies.
This is the Path of Power—the strong will continuously take everything from the weak.
The Path of “Power” is by no means fair.
Its greatest unfairness lies in the fact that every newly arrived soul, before it has even developed, will challenge the strongest beings who have survived here for hundreds of years—namely, Bear Heavenly Envoy itself, eventually becoming its nourishment.
Only a few of its Apostles wander in the Everburning Valley, preying on newly arrived souls… and only a very small number can defeat an Apostle by being weaker, whereupon they are mercifully promoted by Bear Heavenly Envoy to become new Apostles.
It grants Apostles the right to challenge itself, and also actively attacks and kills its own Apostles out of boredom.
The Path of Power is like this, there is no rhyme or reason. Everything is justified as long as one wins.
The strong become stronger, and the weak become weaker.
Eivass raised his hand slightly, and a butterfly landed on his fingertips.
“…But no matter how you look at it, bears and butterflies don’t quite match.”
He stared intently at his Flame Butterfly, whispering as if coaxing a child, “I’ll go get it for you, okay?”
The scar on his chest was indeed an imprint left by Bear Heavenly Envoy hunting Eivass—
But was this not also an imprint of Eivass hunting Bear Heavenly Envoy in return?
Just like the endless hunting cycle in the Everburning Valley—the hunter can be the prey, and the prey can be the hunter.
“You’d better be a bit stupid, otherwise…”
Eivass murmured.
—He could now perform the Ouroboros Ring Ritual.
If possible, he certainly hoped to follow the normal development order, waiting for Star Antimony to perform the Ouroboros Ring Ritual and pull down the Fallen Heavenly Envoy before dealing with it.
But if Bear Heavenly Envoy were to realize that its Apostles pose no threat to Eivass and begin to comprehend Eivass’s soul instead… then Eivass would have to initiate the Ouroboros Ring Ritual.
It could be said that the more imprints he accumulated, the closer the day of his duel with Bear Heavenly Envoy would be.
But it would be bad if Bear Heavenly Envoy was pulled down first, causing the Fallen Heavenly Envoy to become vigilant.
—However, it seems unlikely to be a problem for now.
Because the situation on Star Antimony’s side is more dire.
After Avalon declared war on Star Antimony, the Archmages of Daffodil Duchy immediately arrested Duke Cavendish and announced the restoration of Daffodil Duchy’s independence.
Even if Star Antimony ignored Avalon, it would have to prioritize the matter of Daffodil Duchy’s independence.
Otherwise, if they reacted to this with indifference, even the Black Hawk Duchy, which was currently somewhat loyal, might develop ulterior motives.
But Daffodil Duchy’s independence was carried out with Avalon’s support, or rather, its tacit approval.
Under the continuous high-intensity harassment by the Gryphon Legion, supplies from the rear could not reach the front lines—these Gryphons were stationed within Iris Flower territory, and Star Antimony could not directly cross the sea to attack Avalon’s headquarters, nor did it want to open a third front to attack Iris Flower.
Therefore, they could only condemn Iris Flower strongly, and nothing else.
Eivass felt…
If nothing unexpected happens, the Ouroboros Ring Ritual, which was originally scheduled for June 1900, in Version 3.0, would likely be moved forward.
The war had already begun for a month. It was now early February, and spring was in full bloom.
As for Star Antimony, it was visibly unsustainable until next summer.
Regardless of Iris Flower’s covetous gaze, even Black Hawk Duchy was now starting to voice its discontent.
Seeing that Daffodil Duchy’s independence was almost unstoppable, they became dissatisfied with their fate as cannon fodder.
In Star Antimony, Alchemists, Necromancers, Demon Scholars, and Witches all had one thing in common… that they were all fragile magic users with high status.
To get heavily armored physical occupational classes, one had to look to Black Hawk Duchy.
Either they had to rely on expensive Golems, or the still-in-development Armed Gargoyles… thus, ultimately, they had to rely on the hunters from Black Hawk. Armed with Star Antimony’s advanced automatic weapons, they became the most numerous army in Star Antimony.
Moreover, the territory of the former Black Hawk Duchy bordered Daffodil Duchy. With Star Antimony’s supplies and reinforcements constantly being harassed by the Gryphons, they could only continuously conscript soldiers from Black Hawk territory and send them north to fight against those mages.
—They are also duchies ruled by Star Antimony; if they declare independence, why should we send troops to fight them?
Now, even these Black Hawk army soldiers were harboring vague discontent.
And the Goblin merchants took the opportunity to inflate the prices of war materials several times over.
Thus, Eivass knew… the Ouroboros Ring Ritual would likely be this year. His studies at the Church could no longer be delayed.
Because the Star Antimony people would never accept defeat.
In fact, one could say… they had at most three months left.
—At most three months, Star Antimony will be defeated.
The cat is back!
Dear readers, I’ve missed you all so much! (In Feng Gong’s voice)
